9 Easy Places To Find New Ideas For Great Content

Have you ever sat at your computer, just staring at the blank, white page of a word document that is a “yet to be determined” blog post or LinkedIn Publisher post?

It can be hard to think of something new to write about each week, especially if you or your company are focused on a very specific niche or industry.

So what do you do when your well of ideas runs dry?

Thankfully there are number of places that you can go to not only find inspiration for next weeks’ blog post but also ensure that you are creating content that will be up-to-date and in demand. Here are nine easy places to looks for inspiration and ideas for your next piece of great content.

Find Great Content Ideas In These Nine Places

IDEA #1: LinkedIn Newsfeed

A great place to look when looking for new ideas for a blog post or other piece of great content to create is your LinkedIn Newsfeed.

Here in your newsfeed, you can quickly peruse what your connections are posting or sharing. While much of this may be content posted for their community, you will also find different opinions and questions that they have posted. This can be especially helpful if you have a network full of potential prospects.

Look for posts that not only speak to their needs and desires but also keep an eye out what kind of responses it gets. If you find a topic with lots of engagement, you may have a real winner on your hands.

IDEA #2: LinkedIn Recent Activity Page

One of my favorite places to find new content ideas for your posts is the LinkedIn Recent Activity page – of both your current connections and potential prospects you are not yet connected to.

This recent activity includes any status updates or blog posts they have interacted or engaged with (liked, commented or shared). If it is something they are taking the time to read and engage with, this usually signifies that it is of some interest or importance to them. It can provide valuable insight into what kind of content they are looking for, such as what problems they need solved and what matters to them.

To access the LinkedIn Recent Activity page, go to the profile page of the person you wish to look at. Click the little blue arrow (found beside the Message or Connect button) and select View Recent Activity.

IDEA #3: LinkedIn Group Posts With The Most Engagement

While groups may not have the same importance that they once held, they still provide great value in a few ways. One of those ways is that you can still get a sense of what your prospects are interested based on which group discussions are getting the best engagement.

The secret to taking advantage of this is to join mainly groups that are full of your potential prospects and then read what they sharing and discussing. As you can join 100 groups, it could take a while to scan through all of your groups for popular discussions if you went group by group.

A quick way to find the most recent active discussions is to go to your Group Home Page and scan through the feed located on the left hand side. Look for relevant and popular topics or questions.

IDEA #4: The Most Popular LinkedIn SlideShare Presentations

SlideShare can be an excellent place to look for great content ideas.

To save time, click More Topics, in the navigation bar and start with the topic that your potential prospects are most likely to be interested in. You can also choose to search for a specific keyword.

While sometimes you might want to grab an idea just from the titles, you might also find it helpful to actually go through some of the different slides to narrow in on a specific topic or as a way to figure out how you want to structure a longer piece.

IDEA #5: Social Media & Engagement

You can also glean topic suggestions from the other social media platforms that your potential prospects are using like Facebook or Twitter.

When you are going through the engagement, look for the questions that your friends and followers are asking. What topics are they talking about?

IDEA #6: Competitors

Your competitors are a great source of ideas. You can see what topics they have created content for and what subjects they have missed. If you find posts that did really well, you can give your own take on those topics or create in-depth content based on topics they have missed.

Check out places like their blog, newsletters and social media channels to find ideas.

IDEA #7: News or Industry Specific Websites

Things such as technology, best practices and regulations are constantly changing and evolving in many industries. You will often find plenty of material to cover in your content, just by sharing the latest industry changes or updates.

IDEA #8: Update or Repurpose Existing Content

Bring new life to old content by updating out-of-date how to tips or best practices posts. If it was popular the first time, an update can bring in a lot of new viewers. You can also approach old topics from a new angle or try changing the medium (i.e. article, podcast, video, infographic, etc.).

IDEA #9: Ask Your Community

Ultimately, the BEST place to get answers about what kind of content your community NEEDS, is straight from the horse’s mouth.

When you speak with your community members, whether in person, over the phone, in an email or on social media, what questions are they asking you? What challenges or problems do they share with you?

If you are you not getting enough feedback from them, don’t be afraid to ask them. People will often appreciate being asked if they have questions that need an answer or challenges that need a solution.

Wrapping Up

While we all get writers block now and again, there are many different places that you can look for inspiration to write your next article or blog post.

Although you may borrow ideas from others, the one thing you don’t want to do is copy someone outright or even partially. Copyright infringement can lead to all kinds of legal issues and does nothing to showcase your own knowledge and expertise on your topic.

Not sure what kind of content you should be creating for your community? Lack the skills to create great content for your business?